GOD'S GRACE IS INDEED INFINITE
One day, I found some reassuring words as well as a way to address something that seems to be on a lot of people's minds (especially when in the West, the hour is dawning). It's that dread "s-word" again. The one that makes some people shutter at the sound and for others complacent. It's vile and corrodes everything it touches.

Sin.

One evening, I prayed to God helping me on a particular trait. Then I poured out my heart and revealed nearly every sin I have done repeatedly. I realized that I am not worthy to receive grace from God since I have asked for it a thousand times before that night. I was saying things like "Your Grace may be infinite, but so is my sin." Now I was letting it out in front of God and trying not to hold back. Furthermore I also realize that what I said was not theologically accurate (personal sin is finite but God's grace is infinite). But I knew I needed this. And so I went to bed a little bit down. And when I woke up, I was still down but I knew I would be OK.

And although I read The Orthodox Way by Bishop Kallistros Ware after I got out of my "spiritual low," I found some words that were very reassuring. Instead of quoting the whole thing, I'll paraphrase the part that I enjoyed. Repentance is not to be viewed as a negative thing but rather a positive. That night I was looking down on the ground. But later on, I focused upward to God's Light. That is what repentance should do and this is why I enjoy Confession. And according to the Encyclopædia Brittannica (of all places) Macropædia article on Eastern Orthodoxy, Confession is not looked on as a tribunal but as spiritual healing. That really struck me more than anything.

Now granted that I'm not saying that the East is better than the West but as a Westerner, I have noticed that we Westerners have assumed certain things for a long time. And of course, there are always exceptions (the Roman Catholic Church does understand that sin means "missing the mark" or the actual Greek amartia, even with the categorizations... but that's another story). Sin usually viewed (and it's shared by most Protestants) as something that we did from murdering to masturbation. God's grace acts like a trial and punishment all in one sitting but in the end, we are better. And I'm not saying doing them is not bad but it's not the action itself that makes it so horrid. By doing these things (and others that not are horrid but not suggested), it derails on the journey. And that is why we continually go to church: to be continuously saved and justified. Sin is not a charge but it's an illness that needs to be cured and what a better place to go to receive treatment than the Church-Bride (after all, the insurance premiums are great :))

There is sin that corrupts human nature but God chooses to do something about it because of His great love for us. And so instead of dwelling on what could have been, pray to God and ask what you can do now.

THE CHURCH STILL STANDS FIRM
Lately I have been swamped with articles on the case with the priests within the Archdiocese of Boston accused of pedophilia. And although I will not become Roman Catholic, this is one strand of a two-part tapestry: how the Church is run and how the Church is viewed.

How the Church is run...
The Church is a creation of God with the help of those appointed by God to realize on earth. No human institution can even compare with the Church in its form, structure, splendor, grace and love. It is beyond the temporal wims of society and beyond the limiting philosophies of man. Christ is the Bridegroom and His Bride is the Church and the union created is a continuation of what Our Lord Jesus Christ began on earth.

With that in mind, the pedophilia problem is a small part of how the Church isn't supposed to be run. I can point to a variety of probable causes pertaining to this matter: the seminary tract, the appointment process, the administrators not adhering to canon law, popular culture, popular philosophy... I don't know what specifically caused this but this is something that has to be resolved immediately and not just with those in question.

What I can see is the Church slipping as a whole into the temporal world. And with that comes the following: why shouldn't women be considered for the priesthood? what's the deal with homosexuality being a sin? is Christ the only way to salvation... what about all those other religions and faiths? what about your stained past? why the liturgy so boring... where's the glit and the glammer of the hic et nunc? times changes so why haven't you? And so on, and so on, ad infinitum, ad nauseam. The Church has to refocus as to what its mission truly is and begins with both attention to the Gospel (seeing God's will as stated in the past) and prayer (hearing God's will in the present). The Holy Spirit is more of a Chairman of the Board than a CEO by current standards. Not only is it time to make S.S. [Sancte Spiritus] a CEO again but begin with a whole new restructing.

(Not bad for not being a consultant).

How the Church is viewed...
Long-time critics - both of the material and the spiritual - loves moments like these when the Church appears weak, corrupt and contrary to its mission statement. Long-time supporters have to defend the Church and resist casting pearls before the swine. But everybody in the end suffers for having to deny the Light for the stupidity of several individuals. But of course, it's not just the pedophilia. This is part of our failure to heed Christ's warning of being aware of the "leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy" (St. Luke's Gospel XII.1). The result is the image of the Church being judgmental while failing to admit to their own faults, being accusatory while living in sin, following the letter of the law while ignoring the spirit and love has left the building.

I really believe that when the Church is truly refocused on God and not on the temporal world, then people will see the Bride of Christ is newly-adorned splendor. It doesn't mean that everyone will love us (remember there's the other side of the spiritual) but it will be better. Plus a lot of people will simply disappear. When the Gospel is preached and the Tradition is maintained, then the Church will truly shine and work beautifully just like before in the old days when Christians met in catacombs and people's houses within a pagan Roman Empire.

But regardless of what happened and what will continue to happen, there are those who are still faithful and who still listen to God who will make the changes not for their own glory and so much as the Church's but for God and God alone. And while there is still sin in the world, we know is the One who died for us on Friday and prove His victory on Sunday.

THE IMPORTANCE OF EUCHARIST
My brother in Christ and colleague Kevin is a convert to Roman Catholicism. One of the things that excites him the most about services is the Eucharist and it shows in his description or whenever a thought connects to that wonderful Sacrament. As I was lying in bed, I was thinking of my own encounters with it and how they have changed over the years.

My first exposures with Communion/Eucharist came from the United Methodist Church, one of the few Protestant denominations that is close to recognizing as more than just a symbolic gesture (you can hear it in the Methodist liturgy, which stems from the Anglican but still...). I was seven or so and the concept was very intriguing to me. I never felt like it was cannibalistic (a misconception that still exists and began with the pagan Romans) but I knew it was something else. That love and understand of Communion never changed but grew with time.

My first exposures with Communion/Eucharist in the Roman Catholic Church setting with when my fourth-grade teacher was married. I couldn't take it but it wasn't a problem. The next time I went to Mass was with my aunt and cousin when most of the family went to the Grand Tetons. I being recently confirmed as a Christian in the United Methodist Church found the separation extremely upsetting. I found it to be a contradiction with the idea of being unified under Christ. But I first heard that there is something more to the Eucharist than just bread and wine.

I started to believe more and more that the bread and wine (of course with Methodists being tempermental about alcohol - in the wrong context - wine is subsituted with grape juice) became the True Body and Blood of Christ. I wouldn't read the apologetics on it until I arrived at the College of William and Mary but it was just a matter of faith. Of course this wouldn't be enough as I found out but for a Protestant I consider it closer to what Christians have always known. Now I'm in the process of converting to Orthodox Christianity where they also believe in it being the True Body and Blood.

I realized now that the Eucharist is more than just a symbolic gesture. To consider it just a symbol is to question the divinity of Christ. Several reasons for the Eucharist being the True Body and Blood include:
1) Think equation whenever Christ says "This is my body" or bread=body. If it were purely a symbol, the saying would be "Take, eat, for this is suppose to be my body symbolizing Me being broken for you."
2) The grace of God must not be just a mere head concept. If Christ is the way not only to salvation but restoring the human condition to its fullest realization, then there is something that has to take place from the outside in. Salvation doesn't come with just belief. It has to be physically manifested as well. The whole being which resides in the body has to be changed.
3) Unlike the sacrificial laws given to Moses - which is more symbolic than anything else (remember the Psalmist says often that sacrifices are not fully pleasing to the LORD) - God allows the elements to transform (how it's done is unimportant compared to just knowing that it happens) because He wants to and because He is the only one who can. The Eucharist - like the Church-Bride He is committed to - is not created by man. No man who ever lived (with of course the huge exception of Lord Jesus Christ) can conceive of such a matter. After all, the disciples were shocked by Christ's call to eat His body and drink of His blood because under Mosaic law, blood drinking was forbidden (look at Jesus Christ's bold statement in the Gospel according to St. John VI.48-60)
4) Although not eloquent in apologetics but it's true that the way to a man's (man used in the neutral sense) heart is through his stomach.

It's not enough to say that we are here under Christ but Christ has to be present. Looking back now, I can see that Christ was truly there in that parish in Wyoming (and everywhere that Mass takes place whether it's Orthodox or Roman Catholic) but I didn't have the eyes for it. In order to know instinctively that God has indeed given us His grace through His triune love, then we have to eat and drink it as well as believe it.

The Body of Christ is a group that focuses on Christianity in its current state by looking at the various different sects internally and the overall view of Christianity from the outside. It will be an extension of my personal LiveJournal entries regarding Christianity. I hope this will be informative and insightful. All I ask is that there will be respectful responds regardless of what kind of opinion is held by the author(s). Other than that, enjoy.